X-Snow

The X-Snow project is designed to extend the number of available snow measurements in the Northeastern region of the U.S. by engaging members of the local community in a crowd-sourced snow measurement effort. The primary project goal is to support improvements of NASA products, and to better understand the evolution of snow properties in this area. Most of our snow measurements come from the West Coast where snow is much drier and the crystals smaller.

Sampling participation is available at several levels, from Level 1 which involves the simple recording of snow depth and temperature, to a Level 3 which includes collecting snow reflectance, crystal size and weighing small snow samples for water volume. Participants will be trained, and for higher levels of sampling provided the tools and apps needed, so the measurements will match to remote sensing standards.

The project builds on the power of citizen science to collect many simple measurements spread over a wide area. This type of data collection can be more valuable than fewer measurements collected over a small area with sophisticated equipment because these measurements will allow for the evaluation of satellite measurements and model results across a wide area and under various conditions.